Blind gin tasting, Sydney, April 20, 2019. On Saturday I took part in a blind tasting of 9 gins. No. 7 on the card was Hendricks, and it was most surprisingly given the second lowest average score of the day. This surprised everyone involved, as we all had previously expressed a liking for it. The nose was generally considered to be muted, laid back and relaxed to the point of disinterest. One person described it as a "flat herbal" nose, another called it "generic and uninteresting". My note was "soft and gentle, but boring". The palate was thought to have a generic sweet juniper base with "something softly funky" going on. The finish, we all agreed, was very short - my note says "hardly any finish at all". Summary descriptors from the group included "inoffensive", "soft but unengaging" and "mostly harmless". So, a very surprising result for a gin that, although certainly soft and friendly, I'd always thought of as a dependable go-to. However having now tasted it blind in the context of some much better gins I'd have to summarize my rating of it as "certainly better than just average, but not by a great deal". The average score from the panel was 3 stars, which was my score exactly. "Above Average" : 80/100 (3 stars)